1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to methods and electronic systems for performing music and, in particular, to assigning fingering to notes of a musical piece.
2. Description of the Related Art
Music is enjoyed by millions. To be capable to correctly perform musical pieces, however, one must generally dedicate a substantial amount of time and effort to practicing. For example, one may learn to become familiar with and read musical score, which is often presented in traditional music notation or a variation thereof. One may also learn the intricacies of and practice with a musical instrument that requires the user to engage in particular hand or finger movements or to breathe in a particular manner such that the musical instrument plays the appropriate notes. This learning generally requires a considerable amount of practice and can be a substantial financial expense, which causes up to 80–85% of individuals to quit before really learning how to play the instrument.
In addition to traditional musical instruments, some computer programs allow persons to compose music using keyboards, keypads or other input devices. Many of these conventional programs generally allow a user to play sequences of notes using a standard QWERTY keyboard, wherein each of a plurality of keys has a fixed assignment to a particular note (i.e., an “E” key always plays an “E” note). Such key assignments are also generally the same for all musical pieces executed by the program, independent of the particular user or the musical piece being played. As with learning to play a traditional musical instrument, these computer programs can also require a considerable amount of practice to learn the proper key sequences and/or key assignments and, in most cases, traditional notation in order to perform a musical piece. Furthermore, due to the variety of note sequences found in music, fixed key/note assignments can easily and often lock the performer into implausible, or even impossible, fingering or hand configurations.